National African American Historic Landmarks by State

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the U.S. Government and most states have identified landmarks associated with African American history. Listed below are the African American National Historic Landmarks by state, as certified by the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, as well as some state landmarks.If there are official landmarks that are missing, please email blackpast [at] blackpast [dot] org so that they can be added to the list.

ALABAMA

Birmingham:Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage, and Guard HouseBethal Baptist Church was built in 1926 in the African American working class
neighborhood of Collegeville. Reverend Shuttlesworth, a well-known
civil rights leader was pastor of Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to
1961. He participated in several desegregation protests that gave this
church national recognition.

Mobile: The CampgroundThe Campground historic district has played an important role in the historical
development of the predominately black community of Mobile, Alabama
since the 1860s.

Montgomery Greyhound Bus StationOn May 20, 1961, the Freedom Riders were attacked by a local mob at this bus station.The repercussions of this one day brought Civil Rights struggles into sharp relief and caught national and international attention.

Selma:Brown Chapel AME ChurchThis church served as a starting point for the Selma to Montgomery Marches in 1965, and it played a major role in events that led to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Talladega:Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site (Tuskegee University)This university was part of the expansion of education for blacks in the South following the U.S. Civil War.A historically black college, it first opened in 1881, as Talladega College, with a student body of 30 and one teacher, Booker T. Washington. It features the laboratory of early 20th Century’s most famous African American scientist, George Washington Carver.

Tuscaloosa:Foster Auditorium, University of AlabamaThis is the site where Governor George Wallace in 1963 tried to prevent two black students from entering, resulting in Kennedy calling on the National Guard to allow them entry. This became famous as the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door Incident.”

ARIZONA

Sierra Vista:Fort HuachucaThis U.S. military fort was created during the Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s to protect settlers and travel routes, and later housed black troops or “Buffalo Soldiers” from 1913-1933.

ARKANSAS

Camden:Camden Expedition SiteThis is the site of a host of different Civil War Battle sites. The Poison Spring Battlefield site has significance for African American history, as it is a site where black Union troops suffered heavy casualties. Also, Jenkins Ferry Battlefield is where the Kansas Colored Regiments of the Civil War fought a battle against the Confederacy.

Fort Smith:Bass Reeves StatueThis statue is dedicated to Bass Reeves who served as U.S. Deputy Marshal in the Indian Territory from 1875 to 1907 when Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territories were combined to become the State of Oklahoma.

Little Rock:Daisy Bates HouseMrs. Daisy Lee Gaston Bates resided at this address during the Central High School desegregation crisis in 1957-1958. The house served as a haven for the nine African American students who desegregated the school and a place to plan the best way to achieve their goals.

Little Rock Central High SchoolThis is where the first major confrontation over the implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court ruling occurred, in 1957.

CALIFORNIA

Allensworth:Colonel Allensworth State Historic ParkIn August 1908 colonel Allen Allensworth and and four other settlers established this town 30 miles north of Bakersfield with the goal of constructing a thriving community, where blacks could create a better life for themselves outside of segregated U.S. society. It features many restored buildings, including the Colonel's house, historic schoolhouse, Baptist church, and library.

Los Angeles:The Bridget "Biddy" Mason MonumentThis monument honors one of the first prominent citizens and landowners in Los Angeles during the 1850s and 1860s. Mason, a former enslaved person, founded First African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872.

Port Chicago:Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Park
On July 17, 1944, at Port Chicago, 320 men, mostly African American sailors, were instantly killed when two ships being loaded with ammunition for the Pacific theatre troops blew up. It was World War II's worst homefront disaster.

COLORADO

Bent County:Fort LyonFounded in 1867, Fort Lyon was in active service to one or more branches of the United States military for 133 years. Several companies of African American (Buffalo) soldiers were stationed here during the Indian Wars from the 1860s to the 1890s.

CONNECTICUT

Farmington:First Church of ChristThis church was at the center of community life for Amistad captives and their famous 1840-1841 trial.

Austin F. Williams CarriagehouseThis site served as living quarters for the Amistad Africans on their way back to Africa, and as a “station” on the Underground Railroad.

DELAWARE

Newark:Iron Hill SchoolThis school is one of more than 80 schools for African-American children built between 1919 and 1928 as part of philanthropist Pierre Samuel du Pont's "Delaware experiment." Though small and modest, these school buildings incorporated the latest design concepts in Progressive era education.

Wilmington:Howard High SchoolThis is one of the schools directly associated with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Founded in 1867, Howard High School was the first school in Delaware to offer a complete high school education to black students and was one of the earliest black secondary schools in the Nation.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The Martin Luther King Monument on Independence Mall, Washington, D.C.

Image Ownership: Public Domain

Washington:Blagden Alley -- Naylor's Court Historic DistrictAfter the Civil War, many African Americans migrated to Washington and came to live in the alley dwellings of Blagden Alley and Naylor Court, among others. They were small and poorly constructed buildings, mainly of wood and brick. The living conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary. Only a handful of such alleys still exist. Also located in this historic district isthehome of
slave born Blanche K. Bruce, who was the first African American to serve
a full term in the U.S. Senate, from 1875-1881.

Charles Sumner SchoolNamed after U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, a major figure in the fight for abolition of slavery and the establishment of equal rights for African Americans, it was one of the first public school buildings erected for the education of Washington's black community. Since its dedication in 1872, the School's history encompasses the growing educational opportunities available for the District of Columbia's African Americans.

Frederick Douglass HouseThis 20-room colonial mansion is where Douglass lived for the last 13 years of his life. It has been preserved as a monument to the 19th century abolitionist.

Greater U Street Historic DistrictThis historic district is significant as the center of Washington's African American community between c.1900 and 1948, with African American owned and operated businesses, entertainment facilities, and fraternal and religious institutions.

John Philip Sousa Junior High SchoolThis school stands as a symbol of the lengthy conflict that ultimately led to the racial desegregation of public schools by the Federal government in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Lincoln ParkThis Park features the Mary McLeod Bethune memorial and the Abraham Lincoln Memorial.The
statue of Lincoln is at the East end of the park, whereas Bethune’s
statue lies to the West. Unveiled in 1974, this is the first monument to
a black person, or even a woman.

Martin Luther King, Jr. MemorialThis solid granite sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stands in the "National Mall" in Washington, D.C. The monument, opened in August 2011, commorates King's fight for civil rights and the year that the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law.

Mary Church Terrell HouseThis house, built between 1873 and 1877, was the home of Memphis-born Mary Church Terrell, who at age 86 led the successful fight to integrate eating places in the District of Columbia.

Mary McLeod Bethune’s Council HouseThis townhouse is where Bethune achieved her greatest recognition.It was the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and was Bethune’s last home in D.C.From here, she brainstormed programs and strategies to advance the interests of African American women.

Metropolitan AME ChurchThis is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in D.C., having been built in 1838. Throughout its history, the church has had parishioners who were very important in the history of Washington's African American community, including Frederick Douglass and Altheia Turner. Funeral services for Frederick Douglass and former US Senator Blanche K. Bruce were held at the church.

Mount Zion CemetaryThis cemetery serves as a physical reminder of African American life and the evolving free black culture in the District of Columbia from the earliest days of the city to the present.

Ralph Bunche HouseThis house is where Dr. Ralph Bunche, the distinguished African American diplomat and scholar, from 1941 to 1947. Bunche served as a full professor at Howard University and as Undersecretary-General of the United Nations at this time. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949.

Public Schools of Washington D.C.This multiple site historic landmark includes Alexander Crummell School, William Syphax School, and Military Road School, all formerly African American segregated schools.

Striver's Section Historic DistrictSince the earliest development of this district in the 1870s, the area has been associated with African American leaders in business, education, politics, religion, art, architecture, science and government. The most renowned of these figures was Frederick Douglass.

FLORIDA

Daytona Beach:
Howard Thurman House
Author, philosopher, theologian, and educator Howard Thurman spent most of his childhood in this late 19th-century house. His influential work influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and provided the philosophical foundation for a nonviolent civil rights movment.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Home
This was the residence of the educator and civil rights leader on the campus of Bethune Cookman College from the early 1920s until her death in 1955.

Florida Keys:USS AlligatorBuilt in the Boston Navy yard in 1820, this warship saw duty in 1821 and 1822, patrolling the west coast of Africa on anti-slavery trade duty. The wreck of the U.S. Schooner Alligator can be found near the Alligator Reef Lighthouse on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Florida Keys, Florida.

Franklin County:British Fort GadsdenThis fort was once a place where runaway slaves lived alongside Seminole Indians. It was built in 1814 as a base for recruiting Blacks and Indians during the War of 1812. The British abandoned it to their allies in 1815, after which it became a beacon for rebellious slaves.

Jacksonville:American Beach Historic DistrictAmerican Beach near Jacksonville, Florida, was founded in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville as an oceanfront resort for African Americans. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Bethel Baptist Institutional Church
Bethel Baptist Institutional Church is the oldest black Baptist Church in Florida. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Kingsley PlantationThis is the oldest known plantation in Florida, established in 1763.The plantation has been restored as a house museum. It displays exhibits and furnishings that depict plantation life during the period of 1763-1783.

Palm Beach:Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass GraveThis is the burial site of approximately 674
victims, primarily African American agricultural workers, who were
killed in the hurricane of 1928 that devastated South Florida. It was
one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

St. Augustine:Fort MoseFort Mose is the site of the first free African settlement in what is now the United States. Founded in 1738 by Spanish colonists offering asylum to slaves from the British Colonies, it is also one of the original sites on the southern route of the Underground Railroad.

Lincolnville Historic DistrictThis historically black neighborhood was
originally founded in 1866 by former slaves. Jim Crow laws from 1890 and
1910 spurred the growth of Lincolnville's black owned and operated
commercial enterprises, and in 1964 its politicized community
institutions became the sites and bases from which many Civil Rights
Movment marches began.

GEORGIA

Atlanta:Atlanta University Center Historic DistrictCreated in 1929, this consortium of historically black colleges includes the Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College and the Morehouse School of Medicine. Students are able to cross-register at the other institutions in order to attain a broader collegiate experience. Several ot these institutions played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Martin Luther King Historic DistrictThis National Historic Site located within several
blocks of Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue features King’s birthplace home,
gravesite, and the church where King served as assistant pastor.

Sweet Auburn Historic DistrictThis historic African American neighborhood is where African American businesses moved after the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906.

Albany:Mount Zion Baptist ChurchConstructed in 1906, this brick church served as the religious, educational, and social center of Albany's African American community, especially during the Civil Rights Movement.

Augusta:Paine College Historic DistrictRepresenting one of the few institutions of higher education created by a biracial board of trustees in Georgia for African American students in 1882, Paine College Historic District is important for its role in education and African American heritage.

Midway:Dorchester Academy Boys’ DormitoryDorchester Academy was founded by the American Missionary Association (AMA) following the Civil War as a primary school for black children in the 1890s. It is is nationally important as the primary site of the Citizenship Education Program sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) between 1961 and 1970.

Sapelo Island:Behavior CemeteryThis cemetery is a unique post civil-war African American burial ground that reflects African American burial customs. The oldest tombstone death date is 1890, although tradition holds that burials have taken place at this location since antebellum times.

Vienna:Vienna High and Industrial SchoolBuilt in 1959, Vienna High and Industrial school is as an excellent example of an equalization (an educational facility created to be equal among African-American and white students) school in Georgia and is significant in the areas of architecture, education, ethnic heritage and social history.

ILLINOIS

Chicago:Chicago Bee BuildingThis is the home of the Chicago Bee, an African American newspaper commissioned to this building by black entrepeneur Anthony Overton in 1926.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett HouseThis was the former home of late 19th Century and early 20th Century civil rights advocate Ida B. Wells.

Robert S. Abbott HouseAbbott lived in this house from 1926 to 1940. He founded the black newspaper, TheChicago Defender. Under Abbott, TheChicago Defender
encouraged blacks to migrate north. It was responsible for the large
northward migration of blacks during the first half of the 20th century.

Oscar Stanton DePriest HouseThis house was the residence of the first black American elected to the House of Representatives from a northern state.

Overton Hygienic BuildingThis is one site that has given the African American community in Chicago the name "Black Metropolis." Established in the beginning of the 20th century by Anthony Overton, this commercial district developed in response to the restrictions and exploitation blacks experienced in the rest of the city, providing venues for African American professional businesses.

Wabash Avenue YMCAThis YMCA was a major social and educational center in the "Black Metropolis," the center of Chicago's African American culture in the early 1900s.

INDIANA

Angola:Fox Lake Resort CommunityThe Fox Lake resort community was developed specifically for African Americans in the 1930s, when such communities were quite rare.

KANSAS

Fort Leavenworth:Buffalo Soldiers Memorial ParkThis park, on the grounds of historic Fort Leavenworth, is dedicated to the Buffalo Soldiers who served in garrisons throughout the West from 1866 through World War I.

Kansas City:Quindaro RuinsThis town became an important station on the
Underground Railroad, with slave escpaing from Platte County and hiding
with local farmers before traveling to Nebraska for freedom. The town
was abandoned by most of the inhabitants with the outbreak of the Civil
War.

Nicodemus:Nicodemus Historic DistrictThis site is where a predominately black community was established in 1877 in western Kansas, during the reconstruction period after the Civil War.It is a symbol of the pioneering spirit of formerly enslaved people.

Topeka:Brown v. Board of Education National Historic SiteThis is the site of two Topeka schools: Monroe Elementary School and Sumner Elementary School. Both played a significant role in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education.

KENTUCKY

Berea:Lincoln Hall, Berea CollegeFounded in 1887 to educated both black and white students, this hall on the Berea College Campus served as the focus of civil rights activity for nearly a century.

Nicholasville:Camp NelsonCamp Nelson was a large Union quartermaster and commissary depot, recruitment and training center, and hospital facility established during the Civil War in June 1863. After March 1864, Camp Nelson became Kentucky's largest recruitment and training center for black troops.

Simpsonville:Whitney M. Young, Jr. BirthplaceEducator and civil rights Leader Whitney M. Young lived at this home until he was 15. He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the South and turning the National Urban League into a strong grass roots organization for racial justice.

LOUISIANA

Alexandria:Arna Wendell Bontemps HouseThis house is the birthplace of writer Arna Bontemps, a major figure in the African American literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Dorseyville:St. John Baptist ChurchBuilt between 1871 and 1875, the church is significant because it represents the earliest period of the African-American community in Dorseyville, which formed this town, located in sugar cane plantation fields, just after the Civil War.

Jackson:Port HudsonThis was the site of a 48-day long Civil War siege, when 7,500 Confederates resisted some 40,000 Union soldiers for almost two months in 1863. Union casualties included 600 African-Americans of the First and Third Louisiana Native Guards.

New Orleans:James H. Dillard HomeThis is the former residence of Dillard, who spent most of his life improving the education of blacks in the U.S.

Eagle Saloon, Karnofsky Tailor Shop and House, and Iroquois TheaterIn the first half of the twentieth century, South Rampart Street was once a flourishing entertainment and commercial district for African Americans containing drugstores, barber shops, theaters, live music venues, combination grocery stores/saloons, second-hand stores, saloons and pawn shops, of which these sites are an example.

Oscar:Cherie Quarters CabinsThese twin cabins are all that remain of the slave quarters on the historic Riverlake Plantation. They are a rare surviving example of a once common building type in the antebellum south.

Springfield:Carter PlantationIn 1817, Thomas Freeman became the first African-American man to own property in Livingston Parish when he acquired the pine forest in this area that he would transform into what has come to be known as the Carter Plantation.

Xavier:Xavier University Main Building, Convent, and LibraryFounded in 1915, this University provided a quality education to thousands of African Americans, principally from New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana, despite the widespread inequities during the Jim Crow era.

Wallace:Evergreen PlantationThis Plantation home is a prime example of the major slave plantations found in the Antebellum period.It is composed of 39 buildings, including a main house and slave quarters. Parts of the movie Django Unchained were filmed at this plantation.

MAINE

Portland:Abyssinian Meeting HouseThis building was constructed between 1828 and 1831 to serve Portland, Maine’s African American community. Remodeled by the Congregation in the decade after the Civil War, it was used for religious, social, educational, and cultural events until its closing in 1916.

MARYLAND

Cambridge:Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National MonumentPresident Obama proclaimed this site a national monument in 2013. Its landscape is deeply associated with Tubman and the underground railroad, and is representative of the region in the early and mid 19th centuries. It includes the Jacobs Jackson Home Site, one of the first safe houses along the underground Railroad, Bezel Church, where African Americans worshipped at this time, Stewart's Canal, which provided an escape route for slaves, and the James Cook Home Site, where Tubman was hired out as a child.

Harford County:The Hosanna School
In 1867, the Freedmen's Bureau established the Hosanna School, as known as the Berley School, to provide aid and education to former enslaved blacks and poor whites in the area.

Prince George’s County:African American Historic Resources of Prince George's CountyThomas Calloway House was the home of black lawyer and businessman Thomas Calloway in 1908, Ridgley Methodist Episcopal Church
in Landover was built in 1921 and was the spiritual and social center
of the formerly rural African American farming community of Ridgley. Abraham Hall
was constructed in 1889 in Rossville for the Benevolent Sons and
Daughters of Abraham, a society established for the social welfare of African Americans. In Upper Marlboro, black Roman Catholics founded St. Mary's Beneficial Society
in 1880 to provide for the social welfare of their community. They
constructed a Society Hall in 1892 to serve as a meeting place,
social and political center, and house of worship.

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston:African Meeting HouseAround 1800, this site was the first meeting place of the African Baptist Church, the oldest African American church in the state.

Boston African American National Historic SiteIn the heart of the Beacon Hill neighborhood, this site interprets fifteen pre-Civil war structures relating to the history of Boston’s 19th century African American community, including the Museum of Afro-American History’s African Meeting House, the oldest African American church in the U.S.

Bunker Hill MonumentThis 221 foot statue commemorates the famous Revolutionary War Battle at Bunker Hill, in which a number of blacks fought alongside the colonists.

William C. Nell ResidenceNell was a leading black abolitionist and law student who refused to take an oath to be admitted to the bar because he did not want to support the Constitution of the U.S., which he felt compromised the powers of slaves. He organized meetings in support of the anti-slavery movement.

William Monroe Trotter HouseThis is where noted black journalist and civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter lived during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Cambridge:Maria Baldwin HouseThis house was where Baldwin, the first female African-American principal in a Massachusetts school, lived from 1892 until she died in 1922.She was a leader in many community organizations and a sponsor for many charitable activities.

Great Barrington:W.E.B. DuBois Boyhood HomesiteThis is where prominent black sociologist, writer, and major figure in the black civil rights movement, W.E.B. DuBois, lived during the first half of the twentieth century.

Medford:Royall House & Slave QuartersThis site is the home of the largest 18th century slaveholding family in Massachusetts. Today, it is a museum that houses archeaological artifacts and household items. The slave quarters are the only slave quarters still standing in the northern United States.

Northampton:Dorsey-Jones HouseDorsey-Jones House was the home of two escaped slaves, Basil Dorsey (1810-1872) and Thomas H. Jones (1806-1890).Dorsey bought the home in 1849, and it became a haven for those escaping through the assistance of the Underground Railroad.

MICHIGAN

Ossian Sweet HouseThis home of black physician Ossian Sweet became the site of a racial incident that resulted in a nationally publicized murder trial.

Second Baptist ChurchEstablished in 1836 by 13 former slaves, this was the first African American Congregation in Michigan. Just miles away from the freedom that the Canadian border offered to escaped slaves, the church became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

MINNESOTA

MISSISSIPPI

Clarksdale:WROX BuildingFrom 1946-1954, this building served as the site of a radio station that catered to an African American audience. The second floor, home to WROX, remains unaltered from the time of the radio station's occupancy.

Natchez:Natchez National CemeteryThis cemetery is the final resting place of many blacks who fought in the U.S. Civil War. For example, Hiram R. Revels, the first black elected to U.S. Senate, recruited blacks for the Union side during the war.

Tougaloo:Tougaloo CollegeThishistorically black but integrated college was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association. During the 1950s and 1960s, it became a primary center of civil rights movement activity in Mississippi.

MISSOURI

Clarkton:Charles and Betty Birthright HouseFor more than 40 years this house was home to the Birthrights, former slaves who achieved economic independence and prosperity while building close ties with the families that had held them in slavery, and the predominantly white citizenry of Clarkton and Dunklin Counties.

Diamond:Carver National MonumentThis monument commemorates the place where famous black scientist George Washington Carver was born and spent his childhood. He was discovered by Booker T. Washington in 1896. That same year, Carver joined the faculty of Tuskegee Institute where he conducted the research that made him famous.

Homestown:Delmo Community CenterThis community center was the historic social and political center of Homestown, originally known as South Wardell, one of ten communities constructed by the Farm Security Administration for displaced sharecroppers and tenant farmers following the January 1939 roadside sharecropper demonstration in Southeast Missouri.

Jefferson City:Lincoln UniversityThis university was launched through the generous philanthropy of former slaves who fought for their freedom during the Civil War.It began as a 22 square foot room in 1866, following the tenets of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.

Shelley HouseThis is the home that the J. D. Shelley family purchased in a fight for the right to live in a home of their choosing. As a result, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of restrictive racial covenants in housing in the landmark 1948 case of Shelley v. Kraemer.

MONTANA

Great Falls:Union Bethel AME ChurchThe Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Great Falls, Montana, is one of the first-built and longest-used churches for African Americans in Montana.

NEBRASKA

Omaha:Malcolm X House SiteCivil Rights activist Malcolm X was born in a now demolished house on this site.

NEVADA

Las Vegas:Berkely SquareThe Berkely Square subdivision, which is located in the area historically known as Las
Vegas’ Westside, consists of 148 Contemporary Ranch-style homes designed
by internationally-known African American architect Paul R. Williams.
It was built between 1954 and 1955 and was the first minority (African
American) built subdivision in Nevada.

Moulin Rouge HotelThis was the first interracial hotel built in Las Vegas, constructed in 1955, at a time when black performers and visitors were denied access to casino and hotel dining areas and were forced to seek accomodation in black boarding houses. Despite community aims to preserve the site, all that remain of the structure are two pillars in an empty lot.

Reno:Bethel AME ChurchThis church was a religious, social and political center of the African American community, initially for black settlers in Reno Nevada in the 1910s, and later for local civil rights activists during the 1960s.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lee:Cartland HouseThis building is where Moses Cartland, one of New Hampshire's premier antislavery activists, aided those fleeing from slavery in the mid-19th century.

NEW JERSEY

Paterson:Hinchliffe StadiumThis stadium served as the home field for the New York Black Yankees between 1933 and 1937, and then again from 1939 to 1945. Hinchliffe is possibly the sole surviving regular home field for a Negro League baseball team in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Red Bank:T. Thomas Fortune HouseThis National Historic Landmark was where former slave and leading black activist and journalist T. Thomas Fortune lived from 1901-1915.

Buffalo:The Reverend J. Edward Nash, Sr. HouseJ. Edward Nash, Sr., the son of freed slaves, came to Buffalo from Virginia in 1892 to
serve as the pastor of the Michigan Street Baptist Church, an
appointment he held until 1953. Nash was well acquainted with African
American leaders on the national stage in his day, particularly Booker
T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. He
was instrumental in establishing branches of the National Urban League
and the NAACP in Buffalo.

Newburgh:Newburgh Colored Burial GroundThe Newburgh Colored Burial Ground is a historic cemetery located on
land which today forms the grounds of the City Courthouse. Recent
excavation work and mapping of the cemetery have revealed over 100
graves dating from 1832-1867 with the possibility thatadditional graves may still be found.

New York:Dunbar ApartmentsThis apartment complex, constructed in 1926, is located in Harlem. Labor reformer and unionist Asa Philip Randolph, one of many influential African Americans who lived at the Dunbar Apartments, helped to battle racism in American industry.

Hotel TheresaThe Hotel Theresa, built from 1912 to 1913, has been one of the
major social centers of Harlem. Serving from 1940 until the late 1960s,
when it was converted into office use, it was one of the most important
community institutions for African Americans in New York.

Ivey Delph ApartmentsBuilt in 1951, this was the first large-scale project by and for African Americans in New York backed by a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage commitment.

Langston Hughes House
The Langston Hughes House is historically significant as the home of James Langston Hughes (1902-1967), author, poet, and one of the foremost figures in the Harlem Renaissance.

Paul Robeson Home
Paul Robeson, actor, singer, and civil rights activist, lived with his family lived in an apartment in this 13 story apartment
building from 1939-1941, upon his return from living and performing in
Europe.

Irvington-on-Hudson:Villa Lewaro
Villa Lewaro, the home of early 20th Century cosmetics manufacturer, Madam C.J. Walker, was built in 1918 and designed by the first registered African American architect, Vertner Tandy. Walker used her home as a meeting site for race relations issues.

Peterboro:Underground Railroad Site attheGerrit Smith EstateAn active abolitionist, wealthy enterpriser Gerrit Smith (1797-1874), offered his estate as as a gathering place for abolitionists. It also served as a widely-recognized safe haven for refugees from enslavement en route to Canada on the Underground Railroad.

Rochester:Underground Railroad Heritage TrailThis Heritage Trail follows the routes through Western New York of thousands of enslaved people who sought freedom in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Scipio:Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District
This district is known for its association with numerous social reform movements, including abolitionism, the Underground Railroad, Native American rights, women’s rights, and education. Several of the properties within the district were owned by freed slaves.

NORTH CAROLINA

Greensboro:F.W. Woolworth BuildingThe Woolworth's Five & Dime in Greensboro, North Carolina, is historically significant for a unique sit-in that empowered student activists for the next decade and changed the face of segregation forever.

Ellerbe:Liberty SchoolHistorically important for its educational,
African American and architectural history, this former one-story school
was built in 1930 on the same site as a 19th century building for local
African American children.

Winston-Salem:George Black House and BrickyardAfrican American brickmaker George H. Black lived and worked on this property from 1934 until his death. As early as the 1920s, Black's work was sought-after for his traditional 18th and 19th century craftsmanship and techniques.

OHIO

Dayton:Paul Laurence Dunbar HouseDunbar (1872-1906) holds the distinction of being the first African American poet to receive national acclaim since Phyllis Wheatly.

East Canton:Clearview Golf ClubThis golf club was founded and constructed by PGA Life Member William J. Powell in 1946, in response to segregationist policies of the time that prevented him from golfing on a public golf course in Ohio. Clearview Golf Club is the only golf course in the United States designed, built, owned and managed by an African-American.

Wilberforce:Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National MonumentPresident Obama designated this site a National Monument in 2013. It is where Colonel Charles Young, the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel in the U.S. army, lived from 1864-1922. It preserves his post-Civil War military legacy.

OKLAHOMA

Boley:Boley Historic DistrictThis is the site where an all-black community was established in 1903.Begun as a camp for African-American railroad construction hands, this is the largest of the towns established in Oklahoma to provide African-Americans with the opportunity for self government in an era of white supremacy and segregation.

Norman:Bizzell Library at the University of OklahomaThis library is significant for its association with the historical movement to racially desegregate public higher education in the South in the mid-20th century. The university took part in the U.S. Supreme Court case that challenged the constitutionality of the separate but equal doctrine under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Oklahoma City:Calvary Baptist ChurchThis church was built in 1921 and served as the social and religious center of Oklahoma city's black population. It is also the site where Oklahoma students organized "sit-ins" at segregated lunch counters in 1957.

Tulsa:Mount Zion Baptist ChurchThis church was rebuilt after the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, and stands as a symbol of local African American Community.

Vinita:Attucks SchoolA combined elementary, junior high and high school, Attucks School was one of seven such schools that served African Americans in Vinita, Craig County, Oklahoma, and was the only one that had a secondary school until after racial desegregation in the mid-1950s.

PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia:John Coltrane HouseThis national landmark is where tenor saxophonist and American jazz pioneer John Coltrane lived from 1952 until two years before his death in 1967. A musician and composer, Coltrane played a central role in the development of jazz during the 1950s and 1960s.

Lorraine Apartments (Divine Lorraine Hotel)This building was designed and constructed between 1892 and 1893 by architect Willis G. Hale. Father Divine, leader and head of the Divine Peace Mission Movement, acquired the building in 1948 and made it the center of the Peace Mission's international religious, civil rights and social welfare activities.

RHODE ISLAND

SOUTH CAROLINA

Charleston:Historic Charleston's Religious and Community BuildingsCertain buildings here, such as the Old Slave Mart, Old Bethel Methodist, and Emanuel AME are historically relevant to the African American Past. The Old Slave Mart is the only known extant building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina. The Emanuel AME was built in 1891 and is the oldest of such institutions in the South.

Columbia:Carver TheaterBuilt circa 1941, Carver Theater was one of only two movie theaters exclusively for African Americans in Columbia. Since the other theater, the Capitol Theater, has been demolished, the Carver Theater is the only extant motion picture theater where African Americans could freely go to the movies.

Modjeska Monteith Simkins HouseSimkins lived at this home from 1932 until her death. She served in leadership positions that were traditionally unavailable to women in the civil rights movement, especially in the areas of
public health reform and social reform in South Carolina.

Orangburg:All Star Bowling LaneIn 1968, this bowling alley was still segregated, even four years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act. local black leaders and members of the white business community had tried to persuade All Star to desegregate. Black students and police met in a a pivotal struggle here, resulting in the "Orangeburg Massacre" of 1968.

South Carolina College Historic DistrictThis is the core of the historic campus at South
Carolina State University, known for mass student protests in 1960 and
afterwards, including lunch counter protests, and a race riot at All
Star Bowling Lanes.

St. Helena IslandPenn Center
Founded in 1862, Penn School was one of the first academic schools in the South to educate formerly enslaved West Africans. After the school closed in 1948, Penn became the first African American institution to protect and preserve the heritage of the Gullah Geechee community.

TENNESSEE

Fort Pillow:Fort Pillow State ParkThis well-preserved historic fort and 1,642 acre state park is where black troops were massacred by Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Battle of Fort Pillow.

Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ Built between 1940 and 1945, Mason Temple served as a focal point of civil rights activities in Memphis during the 1950s and 1960s. It was here that Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his prophetic "Mountaintop" speech on the eve of his assassination.

Nashville:Fisk University, Jubilee HallThis L-shaped six-story Victorian Gothic dormitory is the oldest and largest building at Fisk University and the oldest permanent building for the higher education of Negroes in the United States.

Pearl High SchoolPearl High School grew out of an elementary school founded in 1883. It was one of the first high schools for African Americans in Tennessee. It became an educational center for the fine arts and music, and the school developed a nationally known football and basketball program.

TEXAS

Brownsville:Palmito Ranch BattlefieldThe last major battle of the U.S. Civil War was fought at this site, on May 12-13, 1865. Buffalo soldiers of the 62nd Infrantry Regiment played a major role in this battle.

Dallas:Juanita Craft HouseCraft played a crucial role in integrating two universities, the 1954 Texas State Fair, and Dallas theaters, restaurants, and lunch counters. Both Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., visited her here to discuss the future of the civil rights movement.

Fort Worth:Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal ChurchThis church, founded in 1787, originally had a tunnel beneath it that led to the bank of the Wasbash River for escaped slaves enrought to Canada on the Underground Railroad. Many of its early members were freed slaves brought to the area by Quakers.

Galveston:Ashton VillaOn June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger stood on the balcony of htis building and declared that all slaves were free, marking the date of the historic Juneteenth celebrations in Texas. Built in 1861, this historic home became the headquarters for both the Confederate Army and the Union Army at different times during the Civil War.

Houston:Freedmen's Town National Historic District
Freedman’s Town in Houston is the one of the first and the largest of
the post-Civil War black urban communities in Texas. The community was
created by former Texas slaves who upon hearing of their liberation,
left their plantations for the safety of Houston. Although African
Americans lived in Houston before and during the Civil War, Freedman’s
Town represents the first spatial community of black Houstonians in the
city.

Rutherford B.H. Yates HouseBuilt in 1912, this historic house serves as a small museum to Yates, who founded the Yates Printing Compnay in 1922. It is dedicated to rpeserving the history of the Yates family and African American printing. It is located in the National Historic District of Freedmen's Town in Houston.

Jacksboro:Fort RichardsonThis was the anchor of a defensive line of fortifications during the American Indian Wars that included forts Griffin and Concho. Two regiments of Buffalo Soldiers, the 10th Cavalry
Regiment and 24th Infantry Regiment, were stationed here.

San Angelo:Fort Concho National Historic LandmarkThis fort was established in 1867 to protect frontier settlements. Elements of all four regiments of the Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at the post during its active period.

Sweet Home:Sweet Home Vocational and Agricultural High SchoolThis historic African-American school is one of two extant buildings in Guadalupe County funded by the Julius Rosenwald School Building Program in 1924, with courses based on standardized plans designed by Booker T. Washington.

Waxahachie:Joshua Chapel African Methodist Episcopal ChurchThis historic black church was built in 1917. Its first congregation was organized in 1876, by Rev. Joshua Goins, who started many African Methodist Episcopal churches across the state.

VIRGINIA

Alexandria:African American Historic Resources of AlexandriaThese landmarks includetheMoses Hepburn Rowhouses, whichwere the property of Hepburn, a prominent black citizen and businessmen who had been born into slavery in 1809 and freed seven years later. The Dr. Albert Johnson Housewas the home of one of the city's first licensed black physicians, Dr. Albert Johnson. The George L. Seaton House is where Seaton, a successful black entrepreneur and property owner, as well as a civic and political leader, lived. The historic Alfred Street Baptist Church (1855), Beulah Baptist Church (1863) and Davis Chapel (1834) served as historic churches for the black community, and theOdd Fellows Hallserved as the site for multiple African American community organizations.

Charles City:Berkeley PlantationThis is one of the largest slave plantations of Virginia, associated with William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.

Farmville:Robert Russa Moton High SchoolConstructed in 1939, this school played an important role in ending "separate but equal" educational facilities throughout the nation.

Hampton:Buckroe (Bay Shore) Beach
Founded in 1890, Bay Shore Beach and Resort is the oldest recreational beach in Virginia for African Americans.

Emancipation Oak
The Emancipation Oak stands near the entrance of Hampton University. Beginning in 1861 the shade of that oak tree served as the initial classroom for some of the first enslaved people to gain their freedom at the beginning of the Civil War.

Hardy:Booker T. Washington Birthplace
The cabin where Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 is a historic landmark now managed by the National Park Service.

New Kent:New Kent School and the George W. Watkins SchoolThese schools are associated with public school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. While Brown determined that separate schools were inherently unequal, it did not define the process by which schools would be desegregated. The 1968 Charles C. Green, et al., v. County School Board of New Kent County, Virginia, et al. decision defined the standards by which the Court judged whether a violation of the U.S. Constitution had been remedied in school desegregation cases.

Richmond:Barton Heights CemeteriesThese cemeteries were established between 1815 and 1865 by black churches, fraternal orders, and benevolent organizations. They represent early efforts by African Americans to establish their own cemeteries through burial societies that offered death benefits.

Maggie L. Walker National Historic SiteMaggie Lena Walker grew to be a woman of national prominence. She was the first woman in the United States to found a bank and helped pave the way for African Americans and women to improve their lives and successes.

WEST VIRGINIA

Charleston:Elizabeth Harden Gilmore HouseCivil rights leader Elizabeth Harden Gilmore lived here from 1947 until her death in 1986. She pioneered efforts to integrate her state's schools, housing, and public accommodations and to pass civil rights legislation enforcing such integration.

Malden:African Zion Baptist Church
Founded in 1852, African Zion Baptist Church is the oldest African American church in West Virginia.

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